Dreams
by Jezzi1996
Summary: Sakura has been having some strange dreams lately... very strange. And then there's the weirdness of the real world to deal with too. So how does she cope? M to be safe. AU
1. Chapter 1

_Look! I'm updating! Not for my previously existing story, but still! Behold! Ain't she a beauty?

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Sakura was fairly sure this was a dream. There were several reasons, but the most important was that she was sitting with Naruto in a nice restaurant (the kind he could never get into), laughing and having a good time. She knew she shouldn't like it. After all, she loved Sasuke, right? But it just felt so comfortable and natural to be with Naruto like this. The whole thing just felt like- dare she think it- a _date_.

But aside from the fact that she was on a date with Naruto, _and_ they were in her favorite restaurant, _and_ she was enjoying herself, she knew it was a dream because they were talking about Sasuke. And hoping the council wouldn't go too easy or too hard on the Uchiha. Because they had succeeded in bringing him home. And that couldn't be true.

But, since she was in the dream and couldn't get herself out of it, she figured she may as well enjoy it. She and Naruto talked about those stupid little things that only matter when you're with your best friend. It came as a shock to her when she realized that dream or no dream, Naruto was a close second to Ino when it came to friendship. After dinner, she realized something she hadn't noticed in the restaurant but definitely noticed now that she was leaving. She was married to the crazy blonde helping her up. And she was _pregnant_. And not just a little, she was full-blown blue whale pregnant. What started out as a relatively pleasant, albeit strange, date had quickly turned into a married couple's night out. And Sakura was freaked. But not because of what was happening, but because she really didn't mind the images this scene had painted in her mind… _especially_ the ones involving how she got the condition she was in. What was wrong with her? Did she not constantly say that she loved Sasuke? That she wanted to marry him? That she didn't care that he abandoned her, knocked her out, and hurt the ones closest to him on more than one occasion? Whatever happened to that? She needed to wake up, and fast!

* * *

Finally, after a few more… strange… hours in dreamland, she finally woke up. It was then that she started hoping she hadn't been talking in her sleep like she did on the rare occasion. She was on her way home from yet another failed mission to try to bring Sasuke home. It was her, Naruto, Tsunade, Jiraiya and Kakashi. If any of them heard, she'd never hear the end of the teasing. Tsunade probably wouldn't do it when she was sober, but if she got her hands on some sake, as she was wont to do when bored, she'd be as merciless as the boys. They all seemed to be asleep, but she wasn't so sure. After all, one of them had to be awake and on guard so they didn't get killed in their sleep, right? Then again, it was Tsunade's turn to guard again, and the poor woman never got enough sleep and probably fell asleep on guard duty. Which would explain her being in a tree while the rest all slept on the ground.

They still had a few hours before they had to get up and get moving, so Sakura decided to wake Tsunade- after all, if they were going to get a few more hours of sleep, she could take Tsunade's post and she could sleep properly in a sleeping bag. "Tsunade-sama? Tsunade-sama…" Sakura said, shaking her awake.

"Ah! Sakura! Don't sneak up on me when I'm on guard duty! What if I attack you or something?" Sakura couldn't help but roll her eyes. Leave it to Tsunade to fall asleep on the job and not even realize it.

"You were asleep. And I can't sleep. So I figured I could take the job off your hands and you could save your back-sleeping in a tree like that isn't good no matter how young you are." Tsunade shot her an odd look and then hopped out of the tree.

Sakura sat back and contemplated her dream. What was wrong with her that she didn't mind it? Why was the idea of being married to Naruto not making her scream? This new development would take a lot of thought and concentration. Which really wasn't that bad, because really- who was going to attack them? They weren't in enemy territory, they weren't on a mission that would harm another village, and what were the odds of rogue ninja being hired to kill one of the group?

All of a sudden, she felt sleepy again. But not a normal sleepy, but more like a genjutsu. She tried to dispel it, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't. All of a sudden, her vision was blurred as she felt a hand swiftly hit her in the back of the neck, effectively knocking her out. Now what? She promised she'd guard the group, and now look at her! She was lying on the ground below the tree she was on, her vision blurred, and letting her friends get hurt! Kami, what was wrong with her? All of a sudden, her surroundings went black, and she fell into the soothing abyss.

* * *

Sakura wasn't sure if she wanted to be awake right now. Because if she was, she was pretty sure she and her team would be dead soon, and that if they made it out of this alive, they'd kill her for getting them into this. She wanted to try to work out what the hell had happened in her newest dream, but the more pressing issue was dealing with the ninja who were currently holding them captive. Trying to assess her surroundings, she found herself to be in what appeared to be a small clearing of trees. Of course, that small clearing was going to be difficult to get out of, since it was obviously something thrown together inside of a building, seeing as how you could see the walls on two sides. She wasn't sure what the goal of the ninjas was, but if it was trying to make the team think they were still where they were last night, the plan was absolutely terrible, because nothing was the same except that there were trees. Hell, they weren't even in the same place in relation to the 'tent'.

Deciding that criticizing their captors wasn't going to do any good, she decided to try and figure out how many people were nearby without drawing much attention to herself. From what she could sense, there weren't any along the sides with the wall, but there were a few in the area in front of her. Sakura wasn't quite sure how to handle this situation, but being a sitting duck didn't sound good, and screaming and making a scene that she knew she was kidnapped and that there were ninja would probably only speed up the whole _killing everyone_ thing, so… yeah. The best choice would be to wake up Tsunade, the brilliant strategist that she was. But the decision for who to wake up to talk to was taken from her when the last person she would have wanted to be alone with her woke up. _Naruto._ Someone up there had to hate her for a return trip to go this wrong.

Naruto woke with a groan and a yawn. "Oh… good morning Sakura-chan! What are you doing awake so early? And why are you so worried?"

"_shhhh!_" Sakura whispered. "Look around you, baka- this isn't where we fell asleep last night! Don't make a scene, you'll only draw attention to us and get us killed faster. Last night I had a weird dream and couldn't fall back asleep." Sakura told him about what she knew about what had happened the night before. "I'm sorry I got us into this mess, really I am, Naruto."

"Sakura-chan, don't worry about it! A sleeping Tsunade isn't any better than you not being able to break an advanced genjutsu! Now if you ask me, the best plan of action is to pretend we don't know about it and see what they're gonna do. But first, let's see what weapons we've still got." And with that, the two inconspicuously went about checking for any weapons they might still have. They found a total of ten kunai, five shuriken and what appeared to be all their senbon.

"Why would they leave us all our senbon?" Sakura asked.

"Maybe because they're almost never lethal." Naruto supplied. "They probably don't think we could do any damage with them. Or maybe they just didn't notice them. They were in an odd place in the tent, so that's always possible."

"Well I say we wake up the rest of the team."

"But won't it be too obvious if we wake them up? We should just let them wake up on their-" But Naruto didn't have to finish his argument, as Tsunade woke up.

"Tsunade-sama!" Sakura whispered, "I'm sorry, but after I took your post, someone used a strong genjutsu, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't break it, and then while I was distracted by that, someone knocked me out, and now we're here. What should we do?"

"Well, I would suggest getting everyone up, we all need to be on the same page if we want to get out safely." Tsunade replied. Sakura stuck her tongue out at Naruto, not caring how immature she looked.

"Told you so…" she muttered. After getting everyone up, and filling them in on the situation, Sakura was getting tired of saying the same story so many times. "So? What's the plan?"

"Well, if we've got enough for two kunai, ten senbon and a shuriken each, I say we just split it evenly and split up. Tsunade and I can go as one group, and then Kakashi, Sakura and Naruto can go as another group." Jiraiya said. And with that, they took their weapons and broke off. Sakura's team was fairly concerned for Jiraiya. Leaving him alone with Tsunade was never a good idea. But this was the best team arrangement, so they went off in search of answers.

* * *

After two hours of searching, Tsunade and Jiraiya had found out little to nothing. They caught one ninja, but all he knew was that the five of them weren't to leave. Team Kakashi, however, had caught three ninjas, and had learned not only that the ninjas they caught were idiots (which didn't do much for their self esteem) but also that they had been kidnapped because of the kyuubi, which made Naruto feel incredibly guilty. When they met back up at their 'camp' they shared what they knew.

"So now what do we do?" Asked Sakura.

"Well my guess is that we should get out of here…" said Kakashi, and surprisingly, he wasn't reading his Icha Icha.

"Well… I think that was fairly obvious, sensei…." Sakura couldn't help but roll her eyes at her sensei.

"Alright, let me rephrase: we don't know how many there are, but we do know that there are ninja watching us right now, trying to make sure we don't escape. Which means that we're going to need to stick together and fight as a unit. Or, we could just have Jiraiya or Naruto summon a big ass toad to just crush them." Kakashi retorted.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" Naruto cheered. Sakura wanted to punch him and scream, but that would probably be a bad idea.

"Shut your trap and think like a mature adult for five seconds, Naruto. Why fight unnecessarily when we could just send out a toad or a slug to handle it? We don't really have the upper hand or an understanding of what we're up against, baka. Something giant and powerful that could crush everything with one strike is much safer." Sakura scolded.

"Aww, but I really wanna fight, Sakura-chaaaaaaan!"

"Stop your bickering gakis, we've got to plan this out carefully. While Sakura does make a good point about the summoning, if it weren't enough, we wouldn't be at full strength to fight off the rest." Tsunade scolded.

"Then make Naruto do it. He's got the most chakra out of all of us, so if he does it, it'll have the least affect on him," Sakura suggested, "And then if it's not enough to take care of everything, the rest of us will be good to go for fighting, and if Naruto runs out of his own chakra, he can always use some of Kyuubi's." Sakura suggested.

"Alright then, let's do this. Naruto, go!" Jiraiya exclaimed. And with that, Gamabunta was summoned and crushed the fake trees.

"What the hell is this?" Grumbled the toad.

"Uhh… we got kidnapped and we figured it'd be safer if you just crushed everyone and maybe broke a hole through the wall for us to leave through. Please?"

"You're lucky I like you and Jiraiya, gaki, or else I would just leave now. Whatever." And with that the toad went around the building they were in and then came back only to bust through the wall near them and then leave.

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_Hooray for being totally anticlimactic! Maybe next time I'll go into what Sakura dreamed about! Or maybe I'll make the dream dirty and just will mention it in passing. Or maybe I'll forget this exists (like I did for like a month before finally finishing it and posting it here) and this won't get updated in a really long time! Of course, the more reviews I get, the more likely I am to remember this, so… yeah. Later!_


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Woo! Chappie numbah two! And in case you're wondering, NO! Jiraiya is not dead, and will not die. He's too awesome. And I'm allowed to mess around with things like this, because the story, at least, is mine. Just not the characters. They're Kishimoto's._

_A/N 2: Sorry for taking so long to update- I had a really good chapter almost finished, and then my laptop crapped out on me. I then became very depressed and took an extended vacation from writing. I started writing a new one, but then I found an older version of it so I'm taking my favorite parts from each and mushing them together into this. Enjoy._

* * *

"Hmmm…. They're better than we originally expected…" A strange man said.

"Yes, good thing we planned for this. Should I send in the real guards?" Questioned his partner.

"That would be a good idea, wouldn't it? OF COURSE YOU SHOULD

* * *

"So is anyone else concerned by the general lack of effort required to escape from people who were able to kidnap us so easily?" Sakura asked. "I mean, they were able to completely incapacitate us and take us to who knows where, and then they are taken down that easily? Something's definitely up." And within seconds, a group of ninja had surrounded them. "Who the hell are you?" Sakura asked.

"We are your end. Of course, the only one our employer is interested in is the Kyuubi, the rest of you mean nothing to us. So you could either leave and live, or stay and die. Kyuubi is the only one who _needs_ to be alive."

"And what if we _all _want to leave? After all, _Naruto_ doesn't have to do whatever you say just because he happens to have a demon stuck inside of him." Sakura hated it when people called Naruto the Kyuubi. One was a horrifying monster, the other one of the kindest and gentlest people she knew.

"I'd be careful if I were you; a petite little thing like you shouldn't be messing with ninja's like us- especially when outnumbered. You don't know who you're dealing with. Now how about you step away from the Kyuubi and we won't hurt you." And with that, Sakura snapped. She charged forward, and with just a few sharp jabs to the man who had been talking, he collapsed.

"No, you don't know who _you're_ dealing with. You're dealing with two Sannin, one of which is the Hokage, Kakashi Hatake, and two of the students of the Kakashi and apprentices of the two Sannin. So why don't you leave us alone, okay?"

"Sweetie, just because you managed to take our boss down for a couple of minutes doesn't mean that you can scare us off. He's a cocky idiot who doesn't pay attention to pretty girls."

"Actually, your boss isn't down just for a couple of minutes- she's my student, and a damn good medic nin. So while I can't tell you what nerves she hit, I can guarantee he'll be out for hours. And that's if someone in your group is also a medic nin. So I'd take her advice now and run, if I were you." Tsunade said. The ninja looked at each other briefly, and then returned their gazes to the Konoha nin. The men wore expressions that clearly showed they knew they were screwed- but like any ninja with self-respect, were going to go down fighting. The ninja charged, but it didn't matter. Two ninja charged at Sakura, three at Naruto, two at Kakashi, and three each at Jiraiya and Tsunade. Naruto quickly dispatched his, with a rasengan to the gut for the first two to reach him, and a kick to the back of the neck for the last. Sakura simply severed the tendons for the legs and feet of the two she was fighting, unsure of if the others had the same idea as her to keep one or two around for questioning. Kakashi used a chidori to bust through both of his opponents at once, the smell of well-done entrails filling the air. Jiraiya had summoned a toad, and burned his opponents to a crisp. Tsunade, at least, thought to keep some alive as well, going about her attack in a similar manner.

"Alright, now who wants to tell me who this employer is of yours, the one who wants Naruto?" Sakura growled. No response. A swift kick to the groin for the man who had still doubted Sakura's abilities earlier was earned form their silence. "Now come on," she said, her face getting closer to the man's, "you don't even have to tell us his name- just where he is. I imagine it's somewhere nearby if you got here so fast, they would need to know quickly and then relay the order to you- so if you would kindly point us in the right direction…?" She trailed off, glaring into the man's eyes, until he pointed towards the far wall.

"They should be in a small hidden room over there- you can tell where it is because the wall is a shade darker there- it's a surveillance room, so by now they'll know you're coming. If you want to catch them, you'll need to hurry." With that, the party headed towards the hidden room; Tsunade stayed behind to get in one last word.

"You know, I might have invited you to join the Leaf, but you gave up that information too easily to ever be trusted. If a kick in the balls and a pretty face is all it takes to make you spill, you're not cut out for this kind of job." And with that, Tsunade was off. Upon the group's arrival, the door was busted down instantly. The two men inside were clearly not made for fighting. One man looked slightly overweight, and the other somewhat squirrely looking.

"What the hell do want with Naruto?" Sakura shouted, with a glare that could kill fixed on the two.

"Well, you horrifyingly strong monster, we want the Kyuubi for the same reason everyone else does. Power." The fat man rudely replied. He was swiftly (and somewhat brutally) killed by Sakura.

"How about you, Squirrely? Do _you_ have anything you'd like to share?"

"No! I never really knew much! Only the basics! He knew how easily intimidated I was, so he didn't give me any significant information!"

The group left after taking care of the last man. Sakura decided to take advantage of this time to analyze her dream, and her actions earlier. Sure, she cared about Naruto and didn't want anyone to hurt Naruto, but she was _really_ protective and irrational before. She just snapped and fucked that guy's shit up just for him stating a fact (a disgusting, chauvinistic fact, though)! And that dream… there weren't words to describe it…

* * *

_Sakura and Naruto stumbled into the room, not bothering with the lights. They were too engrossed in their heated make-out session to be concerned with how well they could see things, even if that led to Naruto tipping over backwards over a coffee table- and then Naruto banging his head on the couch. But not even that could separate the two, and they continued the kiss as if nothing had happened. Naruto started slowly lifting off Sakura's dress, and they finally separated for air while it was taken off hastily by Sakura. She swiftly unbuttoned Naruto's shirt, as if she would die if it weren't removed…_

"_You know Sakura, it's our wedding night." Wait. She couldn't have heard that right. Neither one of them were in wedding attire… then again Sakura was barely in anything at this point, but- " No one's going to bust in here anytime soon. No need to rush." Blushing, Sakura looked away._

"_I'm aware that in that essence it's not necessary. But you, in a tux, are one of the sexiest things I've ever seen- right after you naked." Naruto spluttered, obviously upset by a reference to something Sakura wasn't familiar with, "So for me, it's very necessary. Very," she slid the shirt off of him, "very," she glided her hands down his chest, "very necessary." Oh dear lord, why were her hands in his pants? These dreams are way too weird! Married? Pregnant? Sleeping with NARUTO? Why was her subconscious doing this to her?_

* * *

It was at that point that Sakura had awoken (thankfully) but the damage was done. While escaping, her mind was filled with other, far more important thoughts. But now, they were just walking home, taking paths so familiar they could be navigated blind- no thought were there to act as a buffer from the strange dream, and the thoughts and emotions it provoked. And Sakura could no longer meet Naruto's eyes as he attempted to have a conversation, suddenly finding the sky incredibly interesting. She could barely get out occasional polite responses so Naruto knew she was still listening. If she looked this dazed and wasn't paying attention, Naruto would automatically jump to the (semi-accurate) conclusion that she was ill. And then he would invade her personal space, feeling her forehead and standing way too close bringing his head down to eye level so that he could see into her eyes to get a better idea of how she was feeling. And if he did that, she would pull a Hinata and faint. And that would just turn it into a cycle of discomfort.

Asking Ino to take a look at her mind when they got home (off the record of course, no one but the two of them needed to know that she was questioning her own sanity…) was on the top of Sakura's to do. And if everything came back normal, then she'd go from there. She just needed to know what was going on.

"Sakura? Sakura!" Naruto was calling her name.

"Huh, sorry Naruto, what?"

"I asked if you agreed that we should set up camp here and finish off the trip home in the morning. You know, get a nice dinner and a good rest for tonight instead of pushing ourselves."

"Oh. Yeah. Definitely. My stomach's been rumbling a bit, anyway." And so they found a good spot for camp and Naruto offered to go grab some fish to cook, so they wouldn't have to waste their provisions. Sakura started wandering off towards the stream. "I'm going to go down a bit and take a bath, you guys." But when Sakura got to the river, she saw something she certainly never planned on seeing while preparing to bathe in a river. A naked Naruto. _DAMN! _ _Oh, no- didn't I mention something about seeing Naruto naked in my dream? Could that have had anything to do with this? No. It couldn't. No way. I'm not dreaming the future. That would be a ridiculous assumption._

"Ah! Sakura! What are- here- now- why- what?" It was actually pretty adorable how flustered he got upon his realization that he was standing there in all his naked glory (and he certainly was quite glorious) in front of his childhood friend.

"I was going to take a bath! I thought you would be fishing closer to camp so I came down here! And why are you fishing naked?"

"So my clothes don't get all wet!"

"You know what, whatever. I'm gonna, uh, go up the river a bit closer to camp and take my bath there. I'll see you at dinner. Hopefully you'll have found some clothes by then." And with that, the red-faced Sakura sprinted off towards camp, leaving a very embarrassed Naruto behind. Perhaps next time he'd bring extra underwear to fish in.

Upon their arrival in Konoha once more, Sakura quickly detached from the group (since the Hokage was on the mission, it would be silly for them to have to hand in a mission report. Tsunade would write up something outlining the events of the mission and that would be enough) and headed straight to Ino's knowing she should have today off from the flower shop. Ino checked her out, and apparently she was perfectly fine. A bit overworked, but fine.

_A/N: Yay! I finally finished it! Now the good news is that I have chapters 3 and 4 already written. I actually wrote them before I finished this. So those should be up within the next week, I want to go through and make sure they're good to go._


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: So... this one's a bit shorter that usual, but the chapter kind of ended there. There wasn't much I could do without shoving the next chapter into this one and making a really long chapter. And then it would make my updates even slower. I'm hoping to get into the habit of posting a chapter every Sunday, but my commitment skills are rather lacking. So bear with me, I'm sure it'll get better. I'm giving you this now so that I don't have to worry about forgetting since this Sunday is mother's day.  
_

It was late. She didn't know what I was doing, wandering around this part of town. This was practically a ghetto. Only really poor civilians lived here, as far as she knew. It gave her the creeps, but she knew she could find her way home from anywhere in the village, so Sakura just let her feet take her wherever they wanted as she thought. But now she was regretting it. She knew she could defend myself against any would-be attacker, but still- this was the kind of place civilian girls shouldn't go alone, or even in small groups if there weren't any boys with them. Not that Konoha was dangerous or anything- Konoha actually had one of the lowest crime rates out of all the major ninja villages. However, there had been three girls in the past week alone at the hospital that had been- well, you know, in this part of the village and none of them got a good look at their attacker, so they haven't been able to catch the guy. Perhaps that was what made her so jumpy: knowing he was out there, lurking, looking for someone else to traumatize. Looking back, she should have noticed him coming, but as a ninja, you just become so accustomed to the sounds and energy of those you work with frequently- so that if they approach you when you're on your guard, you won't accidentally hurt them; and so that you can sleep even with them nearby, and them approaching you won't wake you up. So she didn't know he was approaching until he was shouting a greeting in my ear.

"Hey, Sakura-chan!"

"AAAAAHHHH!" Sakura shrieked. She turned around, kunai out and ready before she could even realize that she was about to stab her teammate and friend of about six years.

"Jeez, Sakura-chan, don't wake up my neighbors! I'm already in enough trouble with my landlord as it is!" She didn't know whether to be shocked or pissed. For one thing, she just had NARUTO, the number one loudmouth ninja tell her that she needed to be quieter. For another, the people who lived in this almost-but-not-quite ghetto were his neighbors. And that meant HE lived here too. Now, she knew that when they were younger that the villagers were total assholes to him. But now, they were older, and almost everyone loved and/or respected him. And with the amount of A- and S-rank missions he took, he should have enough money to be able to afford a new apartment, so WHY on earth would he still be living here? This place gave its residents the creeps!

"You know, Naruto, you really shouldn't sneak up on a girl when she's in the middle of- of- of THIS, and there's a you-know-what running around."

"Sorry, Sakura-chan, I just wanted to know what you were doing here all by yourself at this hour of the night. Not that I don't think you're capable of taking care of yourself, it's just that you were never a big fan of taking unnecessary risks, ya know?"

"Well, thank you for the concern, Naruto, but I was just wandering while I was wondering..." it was a funny phrase my mother used to use whenever one of us would need to walk to clear our heads or figure out a problem. "By the way, how did you even see me? Were you following me?" Sakura jokingly added. She doubted he was, even Naruto's not that crazy. If it were Lee, maybe. That dude creeped her out more than this part of town did.

He blushed slightly, and said, "No, my apartment is right there," he gestured to a building she had passed just a moment or so before he startled her. She noticed that he lived in a fairly large apartment building, and that it actually looked quite nice, "though if you come here again to wander aimlessly in the middle of the night, I might have to- you know, just to make sure you're safe..." That was one of the sweetest things anyone had ever told her. Even if it were a promise for someone to follow her around at night in a creepy part of town where a rapist was lurking.

Sakura didn't know what made her do it, but she was so, so glad she did- she kissed him. And not just on the cheek- she kissed him right on the lips. Wow. She definitely didn't see that one coming. It felt- well, not like the cliché fireworks exploding behind your eyes way, but- better somehow. Like she was finally coming home after being away for far too long. It felt-_right._ "It's good to know there'll always be someone watching my back, thanks Naru-kun," She said before yawning.

When she pulled back far enough to really see his face, it was bright red. How cute. She leaned her head against him, suddenly exhausted. The adrenaline from thinking she was about to get attacked must have worn off- and drained her quite a bit.

"W-w-w-well... you seem tired, so maybe you should just crash at my place tonight. I-I mean, it's late, and you're tired, and we don't want to give the sicko any chances... Unless you don't want to, that is..."

Sakura kissed him again- partly to stop his rambling, but mostly to see if the feeling she had the first time would still be there. And Kami, it was... "No, I don't mind... Thank you for offering, Naruto. I'd love to spend the night at your place." He blushed again, and smiled shyly. "By the way, why are you in trouble with your landlord?" Sakura was trying to come up with something that would have upset his landlord. However, all she could really come up with was things that aggravated her- his obsession with ramen, the color of clothing he wore on missions (Honestly, he'll never be able to Hokage if he gets killed because he chose to wear orange on a mission requiring great stealth), the fact that he stuck up for the disgusting _pervert_ saying that it wasn't Jiraiya's fault that his calling wasn't socially acceptable…

"Oh, that? Ah, it's nothing... She's just been really pissed lately, and the other day, I apparently tracked blood and dirt into the building." Of course. The idiot must have pushed himself too hard during his training session a few days before their mission.

"Oh, well why do you even live here still, anyway? Surely, at this point, you could get a very nice apartment." The boy should have more money than he knows what to do with if he's living here, but he still wears the same outfit every day and eats the same cheap-shit ramen every day for lunch and dinner (though it wouldn't surprise her if he ate it for breakfast too).

"Oh, uh, well, uh, you see, um, I uh, well, it's a funny story, really..." How long could it take to collect his thoughts?

"NARUTO! JUST GET ON WITH IT, GODDAMNIT!" She whisper-yelled. Her patience was waning- and had been since the stammering began. At least with Hinata, you could kind of figure out what she was going to say based on what letters she got out. This was just ridiculous.

"" he said. She blinked a few times, trying to figure out what the FUCK that was supposed to mean.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that? And maybe a bit slower this time?"

"I said that I, uh, owe Ero-Sennin a lot of money, and he told me I could either pay him back with interest- and quite a bit too, might I add- or I had to read all his previous Icha Icha books and then proofread all his new material to tell him if he's 'losing his touch'. As you can see, I went with the first option."

"Oh, really- you decided you'd rather spend all your money on the perv? Instead of reading porn? What's wrong with you?" This made no sense. A teenage boy known for having created a jutsu which makes him appear to be a naked girl (and therefore must have seen what a naked girl looked like) had turned down porn.

"Are-are you MAD that I don't wanna read that stuff? I thought you'd be happy that I wasn't doing anything pervy!" Oh dear. Now he thought she was mad.

"No, not mad, just questioning your sanity- You're a teenage boy and you didn't jump at the chance to just be GIVEN free porn? Do you even HAVE a libido?" Seriously. Shouldn't his hormones be all crazy to the point where he was a sex crazed maniac? Although she supposed they teach the boys how to handle that kind of thing, considering the fact that as ninjas, losing focus for a split second could be the difference between life and death.

"Are we seriously getting into an argument because I DIDN'T read porn? Anyway, let's go to my apartment- u-unless you don't want to anymore, that is..." He whispered. His face fell. Sakura felt bad when she saw the saddened look on his face, but what really rubbed salt in the wound was knowing that he was this insecure around _her_, and knowing it was all her fault. He used to be so confident around everyone, but now he was so unsure, stumbling over his words in an effort not to upset her. She really needed to work on appreciating him, and showing it. Poor thing.

"Naru-kun, of course I want to spend the night." A third kiss. Sakura wasn't particularly sure why this one happened, but this one lasted a bit longer. Maybe it was to show him that he didn't need to walk on eggshells with her. Then again, maybe it was just because she wanted to. After all, Naruto was pretty hot. "Lead the way, Naru-kun."


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: __I think in a very convoluted way, so what seems obvious to me is often nowhere near clear to others. It has been brought to my attention that some of the things in this story are confusing because of a lack of explanation, or a shitty explanation. Firstly, the story is AU- meaning it takes place in an alternate universe in which I am the psychotic puppet master. Therefore, there a few things I have changed to fit my whims. For example, the most glaringly obvious, Jiraiya's not dead. Also, kages leave the village more frequently, allowed to kind of go where they want considering how strong they are and all. Also, I did explain what the mission was. I just did it really briefly. They had been on yet another failed mission to bring Sasuke home. Tsunade and Jiraiya went too because there was word that Kabuto (since he's all freaky with the Orochimaru chakra now...) was also in the area. The ninja weren't smart but they were skilled. I just am terrible in every way with fight scenes, so it came out crappy and suggested that the fight was an easy win. And I didn't have them kill anyone because I need all of them for the plot. And anyway there are so many villains who have glaringly obvious chances to just do away with the heroes and don't bother to try that I figured that wouldn't be so strange. And the whole thing with the nudity was odd, I will admit. But something that was going to kind of develop along with the story was that somehow (and I don't know how because I'm writing this based on a very rough outline done by my friend Alyssa who had requested it) Sakura was having these strange dreams, which were actually the future. I know. It's weird. And so as the story progressed, she would dream of things closer and closer to the present, until she was going to dream something really romantic that Naruto was going to do for her, and then that night it happened- and she explains that she's been having weird dreams and that this had happened it her most recent one. I'm trying to find something to happen and connect each dream to what's happening in the story now though, to kind of hint at what's going on. So in her dream she mentions something about having seen Naruto naked, so then when she goes to take a bath while he's fishing, it happens. Long-winded explanation complete._

Sakura really hoped her surprise didn't show completely through on her face. His apartment was actually pretty nice- especially considering the location. It had a smallish living room, and a kitchen just big enough to cook in, and it had a little nook for eating in. It also had a small dining room attached to the living room, and a hallway leading to what I could only assume to be his bathroom and bedroom. Overall, the apartment wasn't very big, but it didn't need to be- it wasn't like he ever entertained...

"Wow, this is actually much better than I expected! It's so nice, and anyone could tell just by looking in here that this was your place- everything is filled with your personality! Your apartment is so much better than my apartment, and I probably pay twice as much as you pay!"

She actually WAS jealous of Naruto-kun, and his perfect-in-its-imperfections apartment. It was so lived in, and homey- whereas hers looked sterile and boring in comparison... she knew that she'd hate the apartment if anyone else lived there, and that it would look revolting, but nothing could escape the fallout of optimism and- well- sunshine that seemed to roll off Naruto in waves... His carpet was blotted with stains, and the entire apartment smelled faintly of instant ramen. But his refrigerator, which was for some reason ajar, revealed that ramen wasn't the only thing he ate. Sakura could see a few carrots, what she _hoped_ was cottage cheese that had leaked out of its container, and a carton of eggs. It relieved Sakura somewhat to know that he ate more than just ramen.

"I'm sure your apartment is just fine, Sakura-chan. Sorry about the mess, but I've never had to worry about anyone dropping in before, heheh..." Honestly, he was gonna catch on soon that she'd do it to shut him up and then start rambling just to get her to kiss him. Or maybe he already had. Oh well, it wasn't like she really cared. Sakura went on her tiptoes and gave him a quick peck on the lips. This time she felt chills. Kissing Naruto sure felt weird.

"There's no need to apologize, Naru-kun... I think your apartment is absolutely perfect- all messy and cheery and uninhibited by what someone else may think...". That was more about him than his apartment, but she guessed it was true about the apartment, too. Sakura grabbed the collar of his shirt, and yanked him down to her level, kissing him for the hell of it. He was shocked, but after a second, he responded. She pushed him over to the couch. She wasn't going to try anything too dirty, but hormones had gotten the better of her, and she was helpless to them.

The made it to the couch, and only broke apart when we were both panting for breath. "Uhm, uh, heheheh..." Naruto-kun said. "That was... Nice. Unexpected, but nice..."

"Yeah... We should... do that... more often..." Sakura huffed out in agreement.

"Alright... But first, let me show you the bedroom. You must be tired. We can do that some more another time." Sakura was rather disappointed. Making out with Naruto was fun.

"Alright, but you owe me. Whenever I want you to, you have to kiss me. Deal?" Sakura needed to make sure that the whole kissing deal wasn't going to be over after tonight. She liked the fuzzy feeling she got when they kissed chastely and the feeling of molten lava in her stomach as they made out on the couch. No wonder ninjas tended to be nymphomaniacs. If there was a chance they might die at any second, wanting to feel that good as much as possible made perfect sense.

The relief in his eyes made her melt a little more inside- he wanted this too. "I'm not dumb enough to turn that down, Sakura-chan... Deal." She was sure her own relief was shining through now. And she didn't even care.

"Great! Now where's this bedroom of yours? I'm exhausted!" Never were words so true. He showed her the bedroom, and then because she didn't have any pajamas with her (but why would anyone even think that they'd need them when they only went for a walk?), he got out a shirt and a pair of boxers for Sakura to sleep in. As soon as he left the room, she stripped down and put on the 'pajamas.' They were so comfortable, and warm, and oh, they smelled like him. She was definitely NOT returning these. These were going to be hers. She figured she'd go out and let Naruto-kun know that she was done, and confirm that the other doorway led to the bathroom. But when she found him, he was in the living room, trying to get comfortable on his lumpy-ass couch, which was nowhere near comfortable enough to spend more than an hour or two on lying down.

"Naruto-kun, what the hell are you doing? You can't sleep on that! Come on!" Sakura grabbed him by his ear and threw him onto his bed, and then turned to confirm her suspicions about that other door. She had to pee too badly to waste time asking him if she was right. And she was, which was good because it would have been pretty embarrassing to have to storm back in there after storming out to say 'WHERE'S THE TOILET?' Kind of makes you look stupid. When she got back to his room, he was just staring at the door looking confused.

"Sakura-chan, I-" Oh, dear lord! Did the boy ever just go with something? Why did there always have to be a whole song and dance to go with it?

"Naruto-kun, I am not going to kick you out of your own bed. I am intruding enough as it is. Unless you have an objection, or tendency to kick in your sleep, or way to make that couch more comfy so _I_ can sleep on it, I was planning on just sharing the bed with you." His face got really red. It was actually kind of cute. "And anyway, it's not like you're a pervert, as we already discussed (his face got redder) so I don't have to worry about you trying anything creepy..." Sakura smirked, and he got even redder still.

"Of course I wouldn't, Sakura-chan!"

"So then is the problem kicking in your sleep? Or do you sleep-talk and say really embarrassing things? What's keeping you from sharing the bed with me?" She asked in a soft voice, looking at him with wide eyes. It was weird, she had never acted like this, but the words just kept coming out of their own accord... It was almost like, like, FLIRTING. And she didn't flirt. Hell, in all her years, she never had a boyfriend! She was always too busy trying to get stronger so that she could bring Sasuke-teme home. Looking back, Sakura didn't know how she ever thought of him that way. She didn't hate him- she never could do that, after all that they shared- but she could never look at him that way again. Not after all the times he tried to kill her and her friends. Sakura still wanted him to come home, still wanted him to be back with the, so that they could be the big happy family they used to be. Sakura wanted to be able to smack the back of his head when he did something stupid, wanted to be able to scold him as she healed the wounds he got fighting WITH instead of AGAINST her, to just be with him.

But that didn't mean she loved him. Or, maybe she did, just not that way anymore. She had grown, matured, learned. Learned that Sasuke could never really and truly care for her and Naruto the way they did for him. And then there was the puzzle of her feelings for Naruto. With Naruto, it was different. She wanted those same things, but for different reasons. With Sasuke, it was because she missed him, because she wanted to fill the hole he ripped in her when he left. But with Naruto, it was because she needed to make sure he learned not to make the same dangerous mistakes (how could she live with herself if something happened to Naruto and she might have been able to prevent it? She wouldn't be able to), because she didn't trust anyone else to heal him- because he was HERS, GODDAMNIT, because the thought of not being with him terrified her. Sakura don't know why it took her several freaky (albeit quite pleasant) dreams to realize this, but she loved him. Loved him so freaking much. But right now, that didn't need to be addressed. The matter at hand was her FLIRTING with him!

"No, there's nothing keeping me from sharing the bed with you." And with that, he flopped onto the bed, and made himself comfortable. Sakura smiled softly seeing this. He was hers. And she was his. And he was warm.

"Good. Now that that's settled, let's get some sleep." Sakura flopped down too, and curled up against him. Sleep came easily that night, surrounded my Naruto's scent and warmth. And arms. Mmm… Hopefully her exhaustion would hopefully keep the strange dreams away.


End file.
